Startup World: Applications for South America are open now

Are you building the world’s best startup? The Next Web’s global startup competition Startup World is coming to a city near you. If you’re an entrepreneur living in Mexico City, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro you can apply, and if selected, you will have the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of expert judges in your city.

The winners of the regional pitching competition will be flown out to Silicon Valley to battle it out in front of a panel of big name VCs in the Startup World grand final. That’s not all, if you’re crowned ‘the world’s best startup’ you will gain international media coverage and a chance to join the i/o Ventures accelerator program, an opportunity worth $30,000.

You will have two months from today to apply and must be available to pitch at the regional heats pitching competitions between July and August (exact dates to be announced soon). If picked you will also be included in the Startup World TV documentary that we are producing about startup hubs around the world, and The Next Web will be keeping up with all the action as a media partner for this event.

What are the criteria for entry?

To enter Startup World, your startup must have launched within the last 2 years

If your startup has received external funding, it can only be funding up to $2M USD

You must have a demonstrable product or service

You must be prepared to talk about your product and service in public and have it demonstrated and recorded for public broadcast

Pitch and application documents must be in English or you must provide a translator

The startup can be across any field; clean tech or consumer tech for example, but must be for-profit

What will the judges be looking out for?

Check out our ‘advisors‘ page to see the great list of startup influentials we have supporting the project. Names of regional and final judges will be announced on our blog soon, and they will be notorious VC’s and members of your local startup community. What will the judges be looking out for?

There are five main judging criteria:

How innovative/disruptive the idea is

How scalable the technology is

How innovative the pitch is

Global reach

Human impact

Apply here now. Don’t live in South America? You can check out all the other great places we are holding pitching competitions here. If we’re not coming to your city yet, we’d love to come! We just need your help to find local sponsors.

This amazing opportunity wouldn’t be possible without our current gold sponsors i/o Ventures and Tropo. If you are interested in sponsoring Startup World please email info@startupworld.com.

The Startup World launch party was a huge success, you can see the video featuring journalist Sarah Lacy and other guests below.

Do you have what it takes to become the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?